FirstDown PlayBook’s Charlie Coiner Coaches A Youth Football 5-3 Defense
Over the past 16 years I have been helping youth football coaches as they prepare for the upcoming Pop Warner or some other youth football league. Keep in mind, this is 16 years on top of the 30 years of NFL and college football coaching I was fortunate enough to be a part of. After so many years, the questions that I get, repeat themselves. Today is a good example as I walk you through a youth football 5-3 defense.
As you will see and hear in this short video, the biggest mistake you can make as a youth football coach is to get any of your ideas from the television. You are not coaching NFL, college or even high school football players. If you think you are, you will fail miserably and your young 9 and 10 year old players will suffer because of it.
When it comes to coaching the youth football 5-3 defense it is important to note that eight of your defensive players are “run first” defenders. It’s an eight man front and for a good reason. The offense you play will almost always be able to run the ball better than throw the ball.
Don’t Get Your Youth Football Defense From Television
It’s the old Bill Belichick philosophy of make the offense play left handed or make them one dimensional. In this case the one dimension would be throwing the ball which most youth football quarterbacks cannot do. To take it a step further, the youth football quarterback you defend will often be best ball carrier too.
For the sake of this blog, I have also entertained the possibility that you are playing a Pop Warner aged quarterback who can throw it a little. This is why I installed a version of cover 2 or two deep safeties a few years ago. The important word to understand here is “version”.
My version allows your two deep safeties to play in the deep half of your secondary while keying the run game on the snap of the football. It requires that you teach individual keys but you will find them in the FirstDown PlayBook coaching notes. One more way that we help youth football defensive coaches. Enjoy the video.
